The 2014/15 ministerial policy statement (MPS) for the presidency
offers interesting glimpses into the spending habits of State House and
the office of the President.

If Parliament approves the budgetary estimates, the Offices under the president will have close to Shs 1 trillion to spend.

An independent analysis of the
ministerial policy statement (MPS) shows that all the six departments
directly under the president namely; Office of the President, Internal
Security Organization (ISO), State House, Uganda Aids Commission,
directorate of Ethics and Integrity and External Security Organization
(ESO) were allocated more than Shs 960.9bn.

This is about 6.6 per cent of the Shs
15.05 trillion national budget, and more than double the amount
allocated to the agricultural sector. Agriculture was allocated Shs
473.6bn (3.3 per cent). The agriculture sector, according to the 2014/15
budget speech, employs about 70 per cent of Uganda’s labour force, and
contributes about 21 percent to the GDP.

“In the past two [NRM caucus] Kyankwanzi
retreats, government agreed to allocate seven per cent of the budget to
the agricultural sector… It is totally underserved; it needs a major
thrust,” Mathias Kasamba, the chairman of Parliament’s committee on
Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries, said in an interview on
Tuesday.

President's expenditure

According to the policy statement, the
president is expected to spend Shs 92.6bn to attend 70 planned community
functions (any informal functions like fundraisings not listed as state
functions) in a year under the community outreach and welfare
programme. This also includes payment of school fees to an unspecified
number of students, and support to the needy.

Museveni is also expected to spend at
least Shs 27.6bn to host 60 delegations from districts under a vote for
mass mobilization towards poverty reduction, peace and development. The
president will spend another Shs 5.9bn to attend six international trade
meetings and to officiate at both local and international trade-related
functions.

This is in addition to Shs 10.7bn
allocated to his foreign visits to 20 countries, hosting 15 heads of
state and attending 18 regional and international meetings. The budget
request also carries a monthly request of Shs 53m to cover presidential
burial expenses. The burial expenses are spread in six different votes
which give the president a consolidated monthly sum of Shs 35.7m to
spend while his Vice President Edward Kiwanuka Ssekandi has a monthly
sum of Shs 17.3m.

State House will also spend Shs 13.05bn
on procuring a specialized presidential vehicle at Shs 800m and Shs
5.2bn on buying 32 support vehicles. In 2012, President Museveni
unveiled two new limousine vehicles, whose cost press reports put
variously at between Shs 6bn and Shs 10bn.

Living large: The President's customised vehicle that cost several billions

At least Shs 5.3bn will be deposited on a
new presidential helicopter. The president will spend another Shs 1.4bn
on a poverty alleviation project which includes support to one
scientific innovator to enhance rural transformation and promotion of
value addition.

Debts

Despite a Shs 205.2bn budgetary
allocation last financial year, State House saddles a Shs 435m debt in
utility bills. In the budget request for this current financial year,
at least Shs 150m will cover electricity bills while National Water and
Sewerage corporation will be paid Shs 290m.

“If they [State House] were allocated
money for recurrent expenditure, how did they accumulate that debt?”
Masaka Municipality MP Mathias Mpuuga said on July 15.

“Unless they want to tell us that State
House is too undisciplined that it can’t manage its utility bills… it
could be part of their hidden expenditures,” he adds.

Expensive president?

In the policy statement, Minister
Tumwebaze notes that with Shs 249.8bn, State House’s wage ceiling
increased by Shs 3.58bn to cater for the remuneration of the
presidential jet and helicopter crews, while the non-wage ceiling
increased by Shs 38.7bn to cater for procurement of classified equipment
and school fees for sponsored students.

The ceiling for the development budget
increased by Shs 5.3bn to cater for a deposit on the procurement of a
presidential helicopter. The requests, according to the stand-in shadow
minister for the Presidency and Anti-Corruption Betty Nambooze (MP
Mukono municipality), make Museveni Uganda’s most expensive president in
post-independence history.

“We are facing hard times as a country
where one would expect a cut in costs but we are having an exaggerated
and overemphasized presidency at the expense of all sectors,” Nambooze
said on Monday.

She argued that if Museveni’s 762
handlers were reduced by half, it would provide funds enough to recruit
at least four doctors for each of the 112 districts. The handlers take
up to Shs 234.3bn annually (93.7 percent) in salaries of the State
House’s total allocation of Shs 249.84bn. This translates into a monthly
purse of Shs 19.5bn, a figure enough to pay salaries for 16,271
lower-level doctors each at a monthly pay of Shs 1.2m.

The same budget can remunerate at least
12,204 specialist doctors each at a monthly pay of Shs 1.6m and 9,763
consultant doctors each at a monthly pay of Shs 2m according to the new
salary structures.

“In the recent US government shutdown,
President Obama reduced his staff at the White House to 129, from 438
and his vice Joe Biden’s staff was cut from 24 to 12,” Nambooze notes.

“Considering the size of the USA and that of Uganda, Museveni’s 762 State House staff is outrageous,” she said.

Starved

In an interview on Tuesday, Ofwono
Opondo, the government spokesman, said the presidential budget was
justified, given the demands of the presidency.

“Just today [July 15], the president has
four engagements in four separate districts excluding his own State
House; at the very minimum, he needs about 38 staff at each of the
engagements,” Opondo said.

Opondo said people had to understand
that not all the staff are deployed at Entebbe. Some are deployed at key
strategic installations such as State Lodges spread across the country,
Parliament and sensitive cultural institutions.

“Don’t think that all the people you see
around the Kabaka [Ronald Muwenda Mutebi] are his staff or at
Parliament here are parliamentary staff, some of them were deployed by
State House,” Opondo said.

“The presidency involves many facets;
that is why it requires a significant number of staff, that’s why it
asks for supplementary budgets because the allocations are not enough.It
is starved of resources,” he added.

Security

The office of the president, under vote 1
was allocated Shs 83.4bn with security; Internal Security Organization
(ISO) and Co-ordination of Security Services taking the lion’s share of
Shs 35.7bn. It is under this vote that salaries and other facilitation
for presidential advisors, resident district commissioners (RDCs) and
their deputies are catered for, as well as departments like the Uganda
Media Centre and the presidential awards chancery.

ISO’s budget jumped from Shs 27.1bn last
financial year to Shs 31.8bn while that of coordination of security
services remained at Shs 3.9bn, the same as last year. But surprisingly
by the end of the financial year, expenditure stood at more than Shs
5.1bn, almost double the allocation. The policy statement tags this
increase in expenditure to the non-wage classified operations of the
office that was last held by exiled Gen David Sejusa.

For support services at the ministry of
the Presidency, the budget was revised upwards to Shs 16.3bn, from last
year’s Shs 14.1bn. Frank Tumwebaze (minister for the Presidency) and
Vincent Nyanzi (state minister in the Office of the Vice President) are
the two ministers in this ministry.

Out of the Shs 16.3bn, the two ministers
get Shs 18.7m in allowances for mobile phones, Shs 379.5m in per diem
and Shs 37.4m in responsibility allowances. Allowances for presidential
advisors were put at Shs 3.9m a month but they also get Shs 121m from a
vote known as per diem for political and senior leaders in the ministry
and Shs 165.6m listed as fuel allowance for political leaders.

Shs 80m will be spent on air tickets and
Shs 1.2bn for construction of the resident district commissioners’
offices in Butambala and Bundibugyo districts. The Uganda Media Centre
and RDCs were allocated Shs 11.5bn under the vote for mobilization,
media and awards.sadabkk@observer.ug